I rise today to highlight a serious and growing gap in our rental system. That is the lack of accountability within the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, particularly in cases involving landlords who are left without recourse through no fault of their own. We often speak about the need to protect tenants. That is right and the RTB plays a serious role in that. However, fairness when it comes to our housing system must go both ways. It has to serve the tenant and the landlord.

I am raising this matter because I have been made aware of a case involving an elderly couple who owned a property that they leased to a tenant who was in receipt of the housing assistance payment, HAP. The tenant destroyed the house and the owners found it very difficult to bring it back into full working order afterwards. The tenant refused to engage with them and threatened them. The reason I mention that the tenant was in receipt of HAP is that in order to be in receipt of it, they would need to have been registered with the county council. When the landlord tried to raise a complaint with the RTB, it found that it could not serve any notice on the tenant because it did not have their address. In such cases, it is vital that we would have co-operation between local authorities and the RTB. While there is an ombudsman when it comes to the RTB, the way in which it works is that you first deal with your complaint, whether tenant or landlord, with the RTB. The latter makes a decision order and if either party does not comply with that, you can then take the matter to court. However, if you do not have an order, you cannot take the matter any further.

I do not believe that the lack of accountability when it comes to the RTB is fair. We are asking tenants and landlords to operate in a highly regulated system and to meet high standards. There are rights and responsibilities attributed to both, and we need to acknowledge both. I do not think it is acceptable that a State body can initiate a process and then be unable to complete it due to a lack of basic information that should be available. Why is there no alternative mechanism available to ensure that cases can proceed? Will the Minister look at this closely and consider bringing forward practical solutions to deal with these issues?